Pingyao's Ancient Walled City and Laura

S and I had two lovely two days in Pingyao in the Shanxi province. In the center of the city proper, there is a walled city that has been around since the 16th century. All the houses within the wall were built in Qing-style architecture and, at night, all the houses' red lanterns cast a beautiful glow on the city streets. It is exactly what you would imagine of a traditional Chinese town. While it was painfully touristy and we tried to escape all the stalls selling chotchkes, we spent our two days there with a lovely Pingyao resident named Laura, her English name, who we met through couchsurfing. Before we arrived, she told us that she was in the middle of classes at her university but would try to make it into town to meet us. When we arrived to Pingyao off the night train from Datong, she emailed us saying that she planned to cut classes for two days and going to take an hour long bus ride that morning to meet us.

She showed up at our hotel at 6PM and we spent the evening chatting with her in our hotel and then headed to one of her favorite restaurants outside the city walls what was amazingly delicious and very cheap. The next morning, she met us at our hotel and we spent the next 8 hours talking, laughing, eating and sharing our lives with each other. She is a senior at university in Shanxi province studying English and, as she told us many times, her dream is to be a backpacker. She really enjoys meeting people from around the world through couchsurfing and learning about others' lives and their cultures, as well as practicing her English. She hopes that one day after she graduates she can travel to America and visit NYC, Ohio (because she thinks the name sounds happy) and California. However, a sad look came over her face when she told us that she did not think it would be possible- that China is too strict and she might not be able to get a visa.

She brought her notebook with her where she jots down English phrases she doesn't understand and where she writes down conversations between characters on TV shows so she can speak more like an American and not speak "Chinglish". She went over some of the phrases and this icebreaker activity led to really open conversations with her about her life, what she thinks of China and her hopes and dreams. After we ate dinner, she told me that she had purchased some small presents for us to welcome us to China and so we do not forget her. She gave us a shear red bag (red means good luck) with 6 (6 is good luck) pieces of Pingyao beef, a local specialty, and a statue of a baby dragon (dragons are also good luck). We all were so grateful to have spent all that time with each other and we told her we would send her postcards along our travels. As she left the restaurant, we hugged and told her she will always be one of our greatest memories of China.

Pingyao, Shanxi